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tv   America Live  FOX News  February 6, 2013 1:00pm-3:00pm EST

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wealthy. thanks for joining us. >> "america live" starts right now. >> megyn: we begin with a fox news alert. a bombshell report on the president's health care law, finding that a key pledge will not hold true for millions and millions of americans. welcome to "america live" everyone, i'm alisyn camerota in for megyn kelly today. despite the problems, if americans stick with their player-based insurance plans and doctors, now, the nan partisan congressional budget office expected that some americans would be off their current plans, as of august, predicted that would be 4 million. just yesterday, the cbo has nearly doubled that prediction and are now saying that 7 to 8 million americans will likely be dropped from their employer's plan in the near future. so, what changed? let's ask chris stirewalt. our editor and host of power play on foxnews.com/live.
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do we know 3 million more people, jump about 75% from the cbo's original prediction will not be able to stay on the employer based plans? >> yes, for two reasons. reason number one, that there are penalty for employers who do not provide generous enough health care plans. you have to have a health care plan as an employer that meets the department f heof health an human services criteria if not you get whacked. aside from the money that you save, you might avoid a penalty. on the other side the federal government is opening up the new health insurance entitlement program that the president authored in his 2010 law. so there's a place for these people to go. and as the employers see the financial advantages of this, more and more of them are indicating, yeah, it's going to be time for us to shove these people out into the government program. >> see, chris, here is the
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maddening thing. for the past four years the administration has said something completely different. they said over and over again, if you like your current plan, if you like your current health care system, health insurance system, your doctor, nothing has to change. in fact, let's remind our viewers what the health and human services secretary said, she said this back in 2009. let's listen. >> 180 million americans have private health insurance mostly through their employers, they like the coverage they have. this actually will make it easier to keep that coverage, they'll get rid of the insurance rules that punish too many people because they get sick. it will allow people to actually stabilize their coverage. >> and chris, you heard her, obamacare will help people keep the coverage they have and it will help them stabilize their coverage. how does the white house now justify these new cbo numbers to show that 7 million americans will not be able to
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keep their employer-based coverage? >> very carefully. no, i mean, look, this is washington. the thing that you say four years ago, three years ago, today, well, it's complicated, it's a process, it's expensive. it's all of these things, but, look, here is the deal. people on the left and right new all along that a consequence of this law could be the undoing of the employer-based health insurance system that we've had in the united states, really since the end of world war ii. that's kind of, as they would say in the software business, a feature, not a bug. it's a feature not a feature and if you're a liberal, if you are a single pair or government-run insurance program for all americans, if that's what you want this is actually good news. the more that the employer-based health care system dies, the faster you get to a singer payer or
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government-run program. you like this. >> i watched some of the cbo hearings yesterday where they were announcing the new outlook on c-span, the wonkiest thing i've done in a long time. >> i'm proud of you, that's good. >> i was transfixed for a while until i had to be revived, but in any event, the question is, i mean, why-- i know that the cbo doesn't have a crystal ball of course, but they are the ones responsible for making these prognostications on which we base policy and base decisions and base who we vote for on, why did the cbo get this so wrong? >> well, look, first of all, economic forecasts are just that and they're less reliable than your weather forecast and some days it rains when it's not supposed to so they're making forecasts based on what they think the economy will be and panelists say. the other thing, they have to operate inside the boundaries of the laws as they're constituted. if somebody passed a law that
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said the sun would come up green tomorrow the cbo would factor that into the accounting and scoring and live outside the alternative universe. >> you're in the alternate universe. >> thank you. >> and remember, president obama said this in the debate over health care. >> if you like your doctors, you'll be able to keep your doctor period. if you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan period. no one will take it away no matter what. >> so, does this dramatic increase in the number of folks expected to lose their employer-based insurance suggest some other health care promises may not hold up? our panel is going to crunch the number in the next hour. all right, from alabama today we're getting new information about exactly what federal agents found when they stormed
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this underground survival bunker killing that kidnapping suspect, and rescuing the six-year-old captive in the blink of an eye and given everything they've turned up so far, it's nothing short of a miracle the way it all went down. fox's trace gallagher is live from the west coast news room, what a story, trace. it turns out that the rescue was much more dangerous than we originally knew. >> reporter: what we didn't realize ali, while the negotiations between the police and suspect were going on day after day after day there was a high stakes chess game played out behind the scenes. the rescue teams kind of preparing their strategy for what to do and at the same time jimmy lee fully prepared for violence. s.w.a.t. teams were using a nearby mock bunker to train for different scenarios and he had booby trapped his bunker, placing an explosive device in the pipe used to communicate
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and another explosive device in the bunker and tried to reinforce the bunker against any type of raid. what the 65-year-old killer did not realize is that police were monitoring him with a secret high-tech camera. they knew he had a gun and when negotiations went south, s.w.a.t. teams pounced reportedly waiting to get an eight foot ladder to get supplies and dropped in stun grenades and agents broke in through the roof and a fire night ensued and agents shot and killed him. all along, fbi held this very close to the vest, listen. >> what we can't talk about specific sources or techniques, things of that nature. unfortunately, we will have to deal with another one of these situations somewhere some day and we want it it to be just as successful as this one was today. >> and as we speak, agents are
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now continuing to sweep the 100 acres of jimmy lee's property looking for more clues, what we into about the five-year-old boy who turned six years old today, ethan, he's physically doing fine. mentally, they say it might take a while before they evaluate that. >> absolutely. but it's so special that today is his 6th birthday and he gets to celebrate it with his family. thank god, it's nice that it had a happy ending, thanks, trace. meanwhile, developing -- this is developing overseas, we've got a exclusive new report on islamic extremism that's starting to spread syria civil war. and this comes as american troops take up position on the syrian border and fighting rages as you can see in damascus. greg palkot with a one-on-one interview with the second highest ranking commander of the free syria army discussing
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the growing threat of al-qaeda inside their ranks and we'll have that for you in one minute. plus, a major milestone for the commander-in-chief as mr. obama announces plans to his first trip to israel since becoming president. up next, a top israeli leaders will share his hopes and concerns about the president's visit and weigh in on the worries about the growing closeness between iran's leaders and egypt's leaders. 24 hours after america learns the president essentially has the power to kill whom ever he wants, wherever he wants. we'll look at whether this report is getting a pass from the same media and liberal lawmakers who savaged president bush for his war on terror tactics. and a new report link to global warming, well, it links all of global warming to well, earth worms, suggesting that it's the slippery critters are multiplying so fast, it could be releasing more carbons than we can take. just ahead, we're in love and
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>> welcome back everyone. right now we have a developing story out of georgia to tell you about. three people killed in this fiery crash this morning. the at least nine others were injured. more than two dozen vehicles were involved. several of them burning when firefighters arrived. you see the aftermath of the scene here, included an empty petroleum tanker. there was a dense fog advisory with visibility down to a quarter mile in some areas. it's not clear whether that played a role in all of this. the crash shut down seven mile stretch of interstate 16. and that's a major route between savannah and macon.
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right around this time yesterday, the white house announced that president obama prepares to visit the country of israel for the first time innist presidency. in our last meeting at the white house in march, president obama spoke with israelis prime minister benjamin netanyahu and described as a very tense encounter. what are the israelis hoping to hear from prime minister when he travels there? the deputy speaker of the israeli congress, thank you for being here. >> thank you, and it's my pleasure. >> what do you hope to hear or see from prime minister when he visits israel for the first time? >> first of all, we're very happy that president obama is coming to israel. duri during, we felt neglected, but he went to egypt, saudi arabia and skipped the only strongest
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ally of the u.s. and middle east so we're happy that he's coming to israel, and covering the issues and challenges that we're facing, mainly the issue of iran. i think it's about time to take action and we need to know that the u.s. is standing with israel together. >> alisyn: what do you think took so long for president obama to go to israel? i think he made a mistake and by coming to israel so soon, he's actually saying, i know, need to have a different approach. i cannot dictate my vision in the middle east. i will have to do it differently and by coming to israel, speaking to the israeli people, and it's a smart move by the president because he lost the credit among israelis, in the first. and studying a new one today between israel and the white house. >> let's talk about iran, as you just raised a moment ago. president ahmadinejad of iran
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paid his first visit to egypt, the first time a president or high ranking official from iran has gone to egypt in three decades as we understand it. ahmadinejad says he wants a strategic alliance with egypt. how troubling is it to you? >> we are very disturbed and looking at the picture and what the egyptians of thinking where they're headed. in one hand they're coming to the u.s., asking for a lot of money, american taxpayer money for weapons for other things they want to buy. on the other hand, they have formed a relationship with iran and you have to decide you want to walk with us or to walk with ahmadinejad, you cannot play with both of us. >> alisyn: and in fact, the u.s. has just sent egypt f-16's, sent egypt weapons that they could use. would you wish that the u.s. would not have done that? should the u.s. be doing something different in their
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relationship with egypt now? >> absolutely, i think we need to look at syria today and instability of the region and to know that when you want to give somebody support in the middle east. you have to watch very carefully where it will go. those weapons and aircrafts. nobody knows whether it would be used against israel or one day against the u.s. yes, you can smart them, but give them humanitarian support, but don't give them the technology and the weapons that maybe they will use against israel in the near future. >> danny, thank you so much for your insight. we will see what happens on the president's first historic visit to israel. thanks so much for coming on. >> thank you very much. >> alisyn: and there are new revelations today about some questionable lessons being taught inside texas classrooms as teachers offer cheerful testimony on lesson plans,
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they're calling criminal and borderline unamerican. >> i retired in december because i felt i could no longer be part of aiding and abetting a crime. >> alisyn: listen to that. we're going to look into how this new curriculum happens and elsewhere in the country. a new report suggesting promiscuous earth worms, you heard me. they could be a major factor in global warming. how they could be heating things up for the rest of us. ♪
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>> there is a big story we're following from the weather center this hour. forecasters are warning that more than 30 million americans could be in the path of a major winter storm. it stretches from maine down to the mid atlantic. we're talking about 10% of the country here and the system is already starting to drop snow in some areas, meteorologist janice dean is in the extreme weather center with the details, this looks like a big one, janice. >> it could be a big event. one that we haven't seen in a couple of years and some forecast models say that boston will take the bulls eye over two feet of snow. they haven't seen that in a couple of years. here is the ingredients for this blockbuster event. we have a clipper system in the north and a developing system in the south and both of those are going to come
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together, they're going to phase and bomb off the coast. that means a particularly strong intense potentially blizzard-like conditions overnight friday into saturday, anywhere from new york to boston up towards main. so, here is the setup here, mid atlantic rain and wind friday as the system moves off the coast line. in some cases a weaker low pressure system, but we think it's going to intensify. the exact track is going to tell us where we'll see the snow. the heaviest prepares off shore, this is one of our computer models, but we think that all of those ingredients are going to come together for a major storm event for new england, but new york, you certainly could see a mixture of rain and snow and all snow if the overnight friday into saturday and there's new york and this is 3 p.m. friday and heading home so the i-95 corridor is going to be difficult for travelling and again the worst of the storm
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the most intense friday into saturday and here is our best estimation right now. we'll have a better grip on the forecast tomorrow morning so if you're travel being, you want to make sure that you're paying close attention to the forecast, and one to two feet for much of massachusetts up towards maine and down towards hartford and three to six for new york and some of the computer models have a bigger storm event for new york and certainly keep you posted through the next several hours, back to you. >> alisyn: yikes! 31 million people in the path and that's not counting the people that commute in and out, friday in and out of the new york area, airport. >> call ahead, call ahead, cancellations for sure. >> alisyn: good advice, thanks so much. >> okay. ♪ ♪ oh, get it on, come on, baby ♪ >> marvin gaye and worms,
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yes, you heard me right. a new report suggested a big explosion in the population of earth worms, maybe a major factor in global warming. apparently the wrigley critters can't get enough of each other and they're releasing carbons in the process. trace gallagher is an expert in earth worm mating and he's live in our system. >> reporter: no messing around here, the research is done from the u.s., netherlands and colombia and calling this the earth worm dilemma. kind of a catchy name, right? and they're saying, yes, indeed that earth worms are responsible for climate change or at least partly and here is why. it turns out earth worms are multiplying as you said, ali like crazy, no one is sure why. maybe they don't have tv, but the number of earth worms in soil determines how much greenhouse gases the soil releases into the atmosphere because bacteria and earth worms produce nitrous oxide. the level in soil infested
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with earth worms is three times higher than the nitrous oxide levels in soil that has no earth worms and carbon dioxide levels from soil with earth warms is 33% higher than that without. huge sections are infested with earth worms and 23% of greenhouse gases come from the soil, right? the worms fertilize the soil and good for those who want to grow stuff. if there's any good news in all of this, really, it's that nitrous oxide that they produce is known as laughing gas. if you're getting a chuckle out of the story, maybe that's why. >> alisyn: and if you see lots of earth worms giggling. what is the antidote to this? how do we get the earth worms to be less randy? >> i don't know, birth control? the whole thing is nobody is quite sure why it's happening. they're being left alone and a
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lot of environmentalists say deforestation is causing a lot of this, but the truth is nobody is quite sure and really just finding out that this is happening so more studies will go into exactly what we can do to try and mitigate this to some extent, ali. >> alisyn: i'm not sure i'll look at an earth worm the same again or listen to barry white as much as we have in the past 20 minutes, thanks so much, trace. >> reporter: sure. >> alisyn: first term scandals could be coming back to haunt the obama administration as a columnist suggests some high profile leaks could amount to an inpeachable offense. that high. we'll look at legal arguments from both sides. 24 hours after the obama administration had given authorities to kill americans with drones, we're asking why there's not more outrage in the media and capitol hill.
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>> developing overseas, we have an exclusive new report on islam extremism that's starting to spread in the middle of syria's awful civil
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war, remember, this comes as american troops take up positions on the syrian border and fighting rages in damascus. a one-on-one interview, the second highest commander of the syrian army, discussing the growing threat of al-qaeda and discussing inside the ranks and from near the turkey, syrian border, greg. >> hey, alisyn, yeah, on a stormy night in turkey, stormy and tough words from a top rebel commander looking at forces inside syria and his name is al curdy, he was a colonel in the syrian military before defecting. we caught up with him in a town alongside turkish syrian border a hub of rebel activity. he does admit that there are islamic extremists, foreign fighters in syrian, battling alongside his own men, but he says there are supported from
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the outside and at least, he doesn't condone their brutal tactics. as for negotiating with al-assad and his regime as some are suggesting, some in the opposition, he flatley denied that idea. he says it's just a falling tactic by assad to kill more people. what would be assad's end? how would he get rid of him? take a listen. >> assad's killing will continue until he falls. this is to say how and when he will end, i think the only way he'll leave is by military means and military force. >> reporter: how long will it take to reach that end? well, i pressed him on that, alisyn, he said six months if iran and russia poull their support for syria and the united states picks up support for the rebels. again, that's a lot of if's and a difficult conflict and
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as we noted that islamist threat is growing all the time. >> alisyn: greg palkot, thank you for sharing that exclusive with us. new reaction within the past hour from the white house, after the leak of an administration memo na lays out the legal ar gives president obama essentially the authority to gives the right to kill terrorists whenever he wants. jay carney about an hour ago. >> the fact is the methods we use are designed specifically to avoid civilian casualties. i think it's fair to say that far fewer civilians lose their lives in an effort to go after senior leadership and al-qaeda along the lines that we are discussing here as opposed to an effort to invade a country with hundreds of thousands of troops and take cities and
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towns. he thinks that it is legitimate to ask questions about how we prosecute the war against al-qaeda. it is something that he has discussed internally. it's in his belief in these issue, his belief that we need to move forward with transparency to create in his words a legal frame work around how these decisions are made. >> the white house trade for more transparency as carney said on the issue and we're hearing questions why we haven't seen more outrage from the very people who savaged those by the bush team. and both fox news contributors, hey, thank you for being here. >> hey. >> alisyn: kirsten i want to talk to you, jay carney says
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that would kill less than a ground invasion, is that justification for using them? >> i guess it's not the i'm not as bad as bush argument obama becomes worse when it's the war on terror issues. the point here, and that jay carney really isn't addressing is that the president is assassinating american citizens with no due process. and this is a very serious issue and we knew this before the election, actually, before this memo came out. and in one of the people that was killed was the 16-year-old son of anwar al-awlaki and in the strike the 17-year-old cousin, nobody asserted they're in any way involved al-qaeda or planning attacks from the united states. awlaki's cousin from denver.
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and the united states can target him and reportedly sitting at a fire and a drone from the u.s. flew in and blew him to pieces, i mean, how is that okay? >> and we don't talk about it that much. let's face it, kirsten, your he' sharing information that not many americans know. monica, why hasn't there been more outrage from the usual suspects who didn't like any of these sorts of war on terror tools when president bush was using them? >> very good question, ali and i think that kirsten might agree with me on this. when the original bush memo providing the legal frame work for enhanced interrogation techniques was leaked and that was authored by top bush administration, justice department official, when that was leaked he the left went wild and went into meltdown and accused president bush and vice-president cheney and
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rumsfeld of ravaging the constitution and those interrogations, indefinite detention, warrantless wear tapping, data mining, all of which with the exception as far as we know of interrogations, the bush-- the obama administration, rather, has continued. and so now we get this memo leaked from the obama team that shows that they've done everything bush has done except for interrogation and took it one step further to target american citizens who are suspected of engaging in terrorist activity and yet, there is nothing with a few honest leftist intellectuals like kirsten who will blow the whistle on this and say we need some intellectual consistency here. if we're going to attack president bush for the counterterrorism policies shouldn't president obama be subjected to the same criticism. >> alisyn: kirsten how do you explain that even democratic lawmakers haven't been as outspoke been this, as they were about the previous war on
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terror tactics, and in fact you took one to task on a different cable network for basically having a double standard what president bush was trying to do and president obama is trying to do. how do you explain their silence? >> i can't. i mean, they're clearly hipocrits and they clearly don't care about human rights, they only care if it helps them politically. that's all i can say. a couple of people are great on this issue. glenn greenwald. the and a couple of people that are consistent on this, for the most part it's despicable. the idea that you think that george bush is a war criminal for water boarding three planners of 9/11 attacks, but you don't have a problem with the president having a kill list. again, we knew he had a kill list before the election, this is not new information. we-- it's just gotten worse because now we're seeing, they're
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doing exactly what president obama criticized bush for basically making the law fit around his already preconceived notion and what obama is doing an unconstitutional and illegal. there's no question. there is no way you can argue that you can kill an american without due process and that he's not being held accountable by the media, i mean, he's not even addressed this memo. could you imagine if this was bush? >> monica, take that up. lots of people we've had obviously our own legal experts here talking about how the president is talking great liberties with the constitution and gone further to say that he's actually sort of bastardizing the constitution, but yet, this is not a topic that you're hearing, i mean, the new york times took it up today. >> yes for a day. >> and i mean, ab ghraib was on the cover of the new york times for weeks and should have been. but kirsten is right, when she said can you imagine if this
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was president bush and he had a kill list targeting american citizens unconstitutionally, going about it in a shadowy way and defense intelligence bureaucrat. whether or not they're engaging in terror activity or planning an attack. incredibly slippery slope. the same democrats who are quiet now would be starting impeachment proceedings on this president. >> or can you imagine if, as robert gibbs said when he was asked about anwar al-awlaki's son being killed, he should have had a better father? could you imagine. they should not let this administration get away with it. >> alisyn: we appreciate you both talking about it. this isn't going away and great to hear your thoughts. as we mentioned the bush administration was hammered for its legal justifications on the war on terror and no
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one took more heat than alberto gonzalez. he's going to join us liver on an interview with the drone program. and teachers in one state are offering testimony on a lesson plan they're calling criminal and borderline unamerican. we're going to talk to the lawmaker leading the investigation into how this happened and whether this curriculum is happening anywhere else. >> here is the lesson that i'm holding that asks our american students to design a communist flag. imagine a new socialist nation that's creating a flag and you-- is put in charge of creating a flag.
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it was education malpractice he said in the schools. >> alisyn: that that was peggy the group for americans for prosperity, a hearing in texas over the controversial school curriculum used by about three quarters of the state and we're hearing more compelling testimony from texas educators who call some of these lessons down right anti-american. let's listen what they told texas lawmakers. >> here is the lesson, to ask our american students to design a communist flag, imagine a new socialist nation is creating a flag and you've been put in charge based on radical ideas aka socialism, marxism, and indoctrinating our children with pro islam lesso lessons. >> i resigned as soon as i could find another job, i felt
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i was abetting a crime of civil rights and human rights. and teaching was like a surgeon forced to use filthy scalpels, as long as i cooperated i was guilty of malpractice. before i'd been a slave i'd be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be -- (applause) >> well, republicans from texas state senator dan patrick is chairman of the senate education committee and presided over that hearing, senator, thanks for being with us. >> sure, alisyn, great to be with you. >> wow, this curriculum has struck a chord with parents and teachers alike. we heard one of the teachers crying because he basically couldn't compromise his principles to go along with this curriculum. what's so wrong with this curriculum? >> before i address that directly. what this brings attention to, alisyn is a bigger story and that's online learning.
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as chairman of education in the texas senate i'm a proponent of online learning, it is the future, in fact, it won't be that long in the distant future except for some subjects where textbooks will probably be a thing of the past. it saves money for schools and taxpayers and you're able to update an online course quicker than you can update a textbook obviously and it's how kids learn, with that comes responsibility and checks and balances and the concern for myself and the members of the legislature is that this is-- this course has 1600 lessons and parents aren't able to see them. despite the fact that the law in texas says that parents should have access to what amounts to an online textbook, to see what the students are learning because we grew up at that time mom and dad said let's see your textbook, what are you learning, so there's great, great opportunities of online learning, but we have to have the checks and balances because what happened in this case, clearly, alisyn
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and the testimony from those in charge, as soon as we found a mistake like they called our patriots at the boston tea party terrorists, as soon as they found the mistake that's not online anymore and that's not the issue, it shouldn't have been there in the first place, how do we bring the checks and balances today and in the future so the parents know what is taught? >> this particular curriculum is used by 875 school districts, who came up with this curriculum? >> we have what are called regional services, divided into 20 regions and help over a thousand school districts. we have about 10% of the school districts in the united states and in some cases sharing by personnels we have a lot of school districts in the rural areas and began this program originally to help teachers as a source to teach
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lessons not to be the lesson and it's grown into a huge program, again as you said, in 70% of our school districts and now the teachers are teaching directly from the lesson, that's not the way it should be, that's not the way it was intended and we need to change that. on top of this, alisyn, what was really shocking to me is they actually forced teachers to sign a contract that subjected them to criminal penalties if they expose certain parts of the program and so they're going to change that as they said in the committee. so, again-- yes, go ahead. >> alisyn: senator patrick, i want you to stand by and let our viewers know what some of the objectionable parts of this are, hair raising we'll take a quick break. and we'll talk more about the curriculum. what you're going to do about it. i'm not juice or fancy water. i've gotine grams of protein. that's three times more than me! [ female announcer ] ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat.
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>> welcome back, everyone, we're joined by republican texas state senator dan patrick, chairman of the senate education committee and dealing with the very controversial curriculum down in about 875 school districts in texas. senator patrick, thank you for sticking around. some of the teachers in the district called this quote, mind control. can you give us some examples of what was taught in the classrooms, particularly say on the subject of religion? >> well, in the hearing, i asked the question about a less on on islam that was sent to me by an enterprising parent and let me share this with you, alisyn, it was parents doing their homework and trying to get information that brought this to our committee's attention and so they found this lesson on islam and in texas we do teach all religions and students should learn about all religions, parents, i found it
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odd a full lesson on islam and not equal on christianity or any other religion. in the last segment, the answer was we changed that and that's not the program now and that's the danger of online learning, online learning is the future and it's terrific that, that's how students learn. if they're learning history and see the name patrick henry and it's linked to patrick henry, they can go in areas they can never go in a textbook. >> that's the wave of the future, so, how can you be sure of what the kids in texas and across the country are going to be taught. how can you change this curriculum now? >> yes. >> well, we're going to be sure moving forward. first of all, we have an elected board, the state board of education, they review all textbooks and have hundreds of people look and make corrections before the final printing and we need to do that with online courses. i want to turn this over to
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the state board of education and they currently do not have control over this program. it's kind of outside the legislature, outside of anyone's control so i want to bring it under the state board, elected officials and they will bring in people to review every lesson and you cannot have a system where anyone can post a lesson at any time. maybe it's quarterly that the lesson is updated or every six months so you have an opportunity to update it or sometimes textbooks aren't updated for years, but it's simply checks and balances and this got out of control and what concerns me, we haven't had a chance to look behind the entire curtin and when we do, i think we'll find more instances of what our tea party called terrorism. >> alisyn: thanks for bringing it to our attention. and see he if you make any progress with changing this curriculum. an eye opening report on federal disability checks. wait until you see who is collecting and for how long
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and yesterday, "america live" brought you the story behind bizarre and almost comical video from north korea, attack on u.s. cities that some powerful lawmakers did not find it funny at all. and we'll show you what they're demanding today. bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. now, i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. our financial advice is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles.
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>> fox news alert on a critical meeting between president obama and tomorrow senate democrats who could save or sink his second term agenda. it's a brand new hour of america live. i'm alisyn camerota in for megyn kelly. a closed door conference in annapolis, lobbying for support for a second determine to-do list that includes gun control and immigration reform. and there's question if he'll get it with more than a dozen democrats up for reelection in the mid term. mike, how much arm twisting is this going to take.
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>> reporter: good question, alisyn. democratic unity is likely to be tested early and often as members are apt to take tough votes and president obama traveled up to annapolis maryland to layout his second term agenda and partially a pep talk as well. and expected to include gun control, immigration, climate change, taxes and spending and more, white house aides note from reducing gun violence and other issues and removing his agenda forward, as for tough votes, here is press secretary jay carney. >> he thinks that the american people understandably expect congress to vote on important matters, to vote yes or no. and you would hope that the senate has had an opportunity to do that. >> and one early test of unity will likely come on senator dianne feinstein's assault weapons ban legislation, but top senate democrat harry reid
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sounds cautious about feinstein's proposal. >> she's talked to me about her assault weapons ban, a new one, and she believes in it fervently and i admire her for that. i'll take at that look at it. and we will all kinds of issues to deal with and i think everyone would be well-advised to determine how to read it. >> other tough votes on fiscal issues such as taxes and spending. house speaker john boehner, a republican says the process isn't easy. >> frankly, there's a lot of scar tissue that carries over with a lot of these bills, it's tough for congress to figure out where the common ground is. >> so the challenge for harry reid balancing loyalty to president obama and looking out for members who are on the ballot in 2014. >> alisyn: that's a tough dance or a boxing match if i'm going to use the harry reid
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analogy, thanks, mike. also, developing this hour, new reaction from the white house, growing concern over the president's policies that allowed drone strikes on u.s. citizens comes in the wake after recent report from the department of justice issued a secret memo outlining the legal rational for targeting americans overseas, if they are suspected of being leaders of al-qaeda or an associated terror group. chief intelligence, catherine herridge is live in washington with the details. >> a short time ago at the white house briefing spokesman jay carney rejecting the idea that the controversial targeted killing program of american citizens could jeopardize confirmation of john brennan the white house counterterrorism advisor to head the cia. >> mr. brennan brings, i think, not only a vast amount of experience, but a significant perspective on the battles that we wage in this effort and the right way to
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conduct them. so, the president believes that the senate should and will confirm john brennan expeditiously. >> but the president's traditional reporters including the aclu says it's unamerican because of the lack of transparency and there's no meaningful congressional oversight review by those courts. >> we keep hearing media reports that john brennan has applied more process and more careful about this program of killing than other people have. but at the bottom line we took a program, the united states took a program that had very-- was used very minimally by president bush, and now they're over 3,000 civilians who have been killed in this, in this program. >> the obama administration base faces repeated questioning over the drone campaign and the deaths of noncombatants since 2011 and the american cleric you see him on the left, anwar awlaki
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became the first targeted for death and three weeks later his 16-year-old son you see him on the right was killed in a drone strike and described as collateral damage. >> i think it's far to say far fewer civilians lose their lives in an effort to go after senior leadership in al-qaeda along the lines that we're discussing here as opposed to an effort to invade a country with hundreds of thousands of troops and take cities and towns. >> the senator widen who sits on the intelligence committee and will be at the confirmation hearing tomorrow has hinted stoppingly he may block the nomination unless the secret legal opinions are handed over. and continuing to say they'll work with capitol hill and offering no details whether those documents will ultimately be produced, alisyn. >> catherine herridge, thank you so much for that update. coming up just minutes from now, there's new reaction from the man who used to head the
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justice department. you may remember former attorney general alberto gonzalez was criticized repeatedly during the bush administration on the legal justifications for the so-called enhanced interrogation, foreign surveillance and many other tools in the war on terror arsenal. he joins us to talk about the heat that he took, now that legal experts admit our current president's plan goes much further. we are just taking a look at the white house now because there are some more changes coming to the president's cabinet. you're looking live at the white house where the president is announcing sally jewel as his pick to lead the interior department and also the ceo of rei, of course, a well-known outdoor recreati recreational, and the at one time worked as a petroleum engineer at mobile, if confirmed by the senate, jewell would replace ken salazar. for more on this announcement
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it's streaming on our website at foxnews.com. all right, meanwhile, there's a troubling record this week ago the number of americans collecting disability checks height a new record high. the social security administration 8, 830,026 people, the straight months that workers getting these benefits have gone up. the numbers on who is collecting and how long they're collecting. melissa francis, she is the host of "money with melissa franc francis" what's going on. >> you quoted amazing numbers, 8.8 million people, double, and it's not supposed to be a measure of the economy after all, this is about having a disability or injured at work.
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you were working and something came along you can' receiving the payments for the family is aslope. why do we have double the people than in 1996. as you dig into the numbers, it seems like a lot of people might be using disability or some portion at least, for things, maybe don't necessarily qualify. for example, when we looked at the ages of some people and the general accountability office dug this up. 10,000 employees over the age of 70 were receiving federal workmen's comp to help you out and get better and go back to work and you look further and there are 430 people that are over the age of 90. who are really collecting disability as if they're getting better to go back to work for long periods of time. lock even further. there are six people more than 100 years old. >> alisyn: come on. >> who are collecting federal disability. and say they are expecting to get better and go back to work. when you look at the numbers,
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you see the payments that they're receiving from disability are higher than what they would be getting from their retirement payout. a lot of these people are postal workers and so, you start to wonder, do we need to really look at this system deeply, look at how you qualify for the payments and look at reform. >> alisyn: are they exercising a loophole in the system or people are not checking who is getting disability. have we lowered the barred that more things are considered disabled now? >> there's a congressional committee looking into how this is happening like everything else, but those are the questions out there. these people appear to be following the rules, but you have to ask yourself. when they say over a long period of time they're going through therapy and trying to get better so they can go back to work and do we need an age cut off for that, and are maybe our standards too low? obviously, i don't want to denigrate people on the program on short-term disability who need the help and going back for the program
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that makes sense. like anything else, it's ripe for abuse and you've got to look at it. >> right now there are 13 americans working for every one person collecting disability. so that, i mean, you're the financial whiz, but that's not sustainable. >> it's absolutely not sustainable and we shouldn't see the number of people collecting the payments double since 1996. we shouldn't set a new record, 192 months in a row and right there, those are the red flags that go up that tell you there's something wrong here. >> thank you so much for coming in to reveal this. you can catch more with money with melissa francis. well, ghosts of the preside president's first term could haunt him. some national security leaks last summer could amount to an impeachable offense. and jay sekulow looks at the legal arguments on both sides.
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big changes ahead for your mailbox as we get word of cost cutting from the u.s. postal service. a story of how he saved someone's life during a hitch like gone wrong. >> these two people are trying to help him. he grabs one of them and the guy could snap the woman's neck. and ran up with a hatchet, smash, smash, smash!. ah. then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. ok. [ voice of dennis ] silence. are you in good hands? progress-oh! [ female announcer ] with 40 delicious progresso soups at 100 calories or less, there are plenty of reasons people are saying "progress-oh!" share your progress-oh! story on facebook.
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. . >> a cowboy, yippee kya. >> alisyn: that's bruce willis, saying do not infringe
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on our second amendment rights. and he says you can can't pick on the rights without thinking until be undone and hollywood shootouts and real life gun violence. there's a huge difference what happens in an illusion and real life. that we jumped off that building or blown up, scratched or cut or anyone hurt and i think it's a modern world and people understand what makes people crazy in the world is something completely different than films. >> alisyn: well, willis says he feels bad for the families who lost loved ones in mass shootings, at the same time doesn't see how legislatures could prevent them, saying he does not know how you quote, legislate insanity. there are new fallout from intelligence leaks that revealed national security
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initiatives. including classified details about the hunt for bin laden. the fbi reportedly opened a criminal investigation into senior administration officials and now a well-respected columnist is suggesting if those leaks are traced back to the oval office, it could constitute an i impeachable offense. and joining me now, jay sekulow. >> hi, alisyn, how are you. >> alisyn: and a column in "the washington post" which he says, there is a bombshell story going on in washington right now that not many people are talking about and that is that the justice department and the fbi are investigating these very high level leaks that came out last summer. how significant is this story? >> well, i think it is significant for two reasons, number one, you've got a potential leak of what appears to be a leak of national security information regarding this computer virus and our
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dealings with israel and iran in order to implement stopping or slowing down the uranium program in iran. so it's a significant issue and then you have to ask yourself. there's only a few people that would have had this information, had to be highly classified information and assuming the president did not declassify it and made statements last year indicating that he did not, then someone leaked this information, every one of these senior members of the administration, whether it's in, whatever department they might be in are all required to sign forms and agreement that say they will not release this kind of information, if they do so they're subject to criminal prosecution. so, there is a very serious story here with serious implications and i'm glad the media is starting to at least look at it, but the implications of this are pretty staggering. >> alisyn: by the way, the leaks we're talking about are the ones that say that the president personally ordered the cyber attacks on the iranian nuclear program using
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a computer virus developed with israel, and this was ayn credibly damaging leak because it exposed intelligence sources and methods, what would the rational be for someone in the president's inner sanctum to reveal something like this? >> well, first you've got to look at the i am mri camplicati what they've done. it was successful program and glad the government can do these kinds of things. why would it be leaked? because the president wanted to show that he was supporting and working with israel to stop iran? you know, i don't have evidence of that, no one has direct evidence that have or indirect evidence at this point, but what it does show the administration which the president is ultimately responsible for, he's the president of the united states. this information got leaked and someone leaked it. and with all high probability, within the president's administration at a senior level and it's important that
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the fbi investigate this, but what's more important is that there be cooperation between the fbi and the executive branch hereof government. between the president's office and the senior security advisors, some of these folks are nominated for very high positions right now with confirmation hearings tomorrow. if mr. brennan was involved, i don't have evidence of that. no one does other than the people high in the investigation. congress has the right to know and we have to wonder who is minding the store here when you've the got this kind of information being leaked to the press. when it's high level security as this, and it impacts directly our national security. i've got to tell you it's a huge story with anything implications and somebody needs to come clean and come clean quick here. >> do you think it rises to the level of an impeachable offense if somehow the president himself authorized this leak? >> well, i mean, to reach a high crime and misdemeanor,
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moral turp tued, that's a high standard and i'm not going to venture whether this would be an impeachable offense or not. we don't have the evidence showing that. but i'll tell you what it does show at a minimum and this is significant, if the president of the united states is running our national security through his offices, which is what happens in these kind of situations and there's a leak in his administration, he is ultimately accountable and those individuals that engaged in the leak should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and i'm assuming that's what the united states department of justice is doing, right now with the investigation, looking at all those options. now, if the president authorized this and we end up with watergate type of scenario, although far worse situation than watergate then you've got a serious situation with the president and we don't have that evidence yet, but i tell you something, someone needs to figure out how this information got out. it's critical for our own national security that this information not be leaked and i can't imagine the president declassified this, which would be the other defense here. i just don't see that. >> alisyn: all right. we shall see what the fbi comes up with.
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jay sekulow, thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> alisyn: and a bombshell report from the congressional budget office is raising questions about promises like this one. remember this? >> nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage of the doctor you have. yesterday the congressional budget office announced a new forecast showing more than 7 million people will likely be dropped from their employer's health insurance plan in the near future. we'll look at what this means. plus, new rules for your food. why the efforts to help you eat healthy just got a big new price tag. we have a live report coming up. ♪ when you have diabetes...
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>> new concerns about plans to regulate the food you eat. the food and drug administration wants grocery stores and supermarkets to post nutritional information for customers just like chain restaurants are required to post information. but it's going to cost more and billion dollars the first year alone and guess who gets to pick up the added costs. shannon bream is live in washington. >> hi, alisyn, this stems from a proposed regulation that comes from the new health care law, many in on board with nutritional info, but the f.d.a. had supermarkets and convenience stores, many in those industries decided to fight back. think about the store shelves at your favorite grocery
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store, most are packaged and have nutritional info on the label. what about salad bars, hot foods and soups and bakery items. under this new regulation, grocers would be required to invest in software systems or send each out to an independent lab to be tested. and it would cost the supermarket industry a billion dollars in just the first year. >> the supermarket industry is a business that's well-known that our net profit averaged and has been forever is 1%. so when you incur significant costs there's no way that that doesn't get passed on to the customer in some form. >> under the new federal regulation, store owners would be responsible for eight separate recordsen on each individual item. the recipe, the ingredients along with signs and scales for weighing the different foods and a hefty price to pay if they don't get it right. >> if you get a wrong, get
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this. it's a federal crime. and you can face jail time and thousands of dollars worth of fines. >> that's right, jail time. many of the thousands of store owners who could be covered by this say they're willing to take the risk and they actually get rid of the food bars and bakeries altogether. the final version of this f.d.a. regulation is due sometime in april, alisyn. >> alisyn: i love knowing the calorie count of my morning, but-- >> do you want to know? >> i don't buy it at starbucks because i know, but i don't know that it's worth 1 billion dollars. >> that's a pretty hefty price tag for any scone. >> alisyn: it is, shannon. thank you for bringing is to our attention. new developments next on another health care bombshell. a nonpartisan group now predicting more than 7 million americans will lose their insurance at work in the near future. so, does that suggest some other health care promises may not hold up? our panel is going to crunch the numbers for u plus, a
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heart breaking update on victims of super storm sandy. more than a hundred days later why some people cannot cut through the red tape and get back inside their home. >> we're living in one room, one room. now, you tell me what mom and woman can stay in one room 24 hours a day. >> every day is a struggle to obtain affordable food, transportation and the basic necessities, like soap and laundry detergent and to have clean clothes.
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>> developing now, there's a heart breaking update on victims still suffering more than three months after super storm sandy slammed into the northeast. thousands of people in new york and new jersey are caught in a nightmare of red tape, it's keeping them from getting back into their homes and forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab in the interim. and trace picked up the story from our west coast news room, hey, trace. >> reporter: i think a hundred days later the best way to tell the story to show the pictures. this is astounding, you're talking about, two days ago in rockaway beach. thousands and thousands of family people want to rebuild their homes. the debris has not been touched. they're not months away from normal, they're years away. the numbers. 81,000 new york and new jersey families now applied for
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rental assistance from fema. 4,000 families as we talk right now are still in hotels in new york and new jersey, at a cost to fema of 71 million dollars, it's costing new jersey and new york millions on top of that. this man and his family, he said he finally had to accepted the kids to go live with their grandparents, listen to him. >> we get no answers, we've been abandoned by red cross, fema, seems like they're nonexistent right now. we just need help. we need housing. we need food. a lot of people need medical help. both physically and mentally. and there's nobody to turn to. >> reporter: yeah, and this hotel program was supposed to end this saturday. now, clearly, it's going to be extended, but get this, it's not getting smaller, it's getting bigger because many people are wearing out welcome with friends and family and also advertising to bring more people into that program. but millions or thousands say living in hotels is no
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vacation. listen to this one. >> we've been residing at this home in manhattan and various hotels where prices are an all time high. nothing is affordable, we don't come from manhattan and don't live the luxurious life style. we're in a hotel and we don't have the basic necessities. >> reporter: come on, ali, we work in midtown manhattan and you still do. bagel is two bucks and they have to live in the vicinity and a lot of homes are questioned for the sanitary conditions and lawmakers approved 50 billion dollars in sandy aid and new york state is supposed to get their first reimbursement to the tune of 3.5 billion dollars. but a lot of people need a lot of help and they don't seem to be getting it. >> of course our national attention is turned away from this storm and we have other things to attend to, but this is a good reminder, thanks,
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trace. trace. >> nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage with the doctor you have. we've been extraordinarily careful not to in any way undermine the employer-based system and that's why my proposal builds on the current system where most american get that health insurance from their employer. if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. >> we heard it again and again in 2009, 2010, you're getting to keep your doctor, you get to keep your plan. but yesterday, the nonpart stand congressional budget office released a new forecast, it expects a whop 7 million americans will get kicked off their employer p provided health care in the future. double the amount. ed henry brought it up at the briefing. >> how can the president still claim that people get to keep their coverage and doctor if 7 million people are thrown off
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insurance? >> well, i think the report is oversimplified in a number of areas and hhs can provide more details, more information about that. the bottom line here is that no matter where you live on january 1st, 2014, that insurance marketplace will be up and running and consumers will have more access to quality affordable health insurance coverage. >> and the fox news contributor and political advisor to new jersey senator, he's with the eye can radio network and at the show, thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> good to be here. >> hold on one second, jay carney, i want to start with you, because that isn't what the president said. jay carney just said no matter where you live, an insurance marketplace will be up and running. that's good, a great safety net. that's different from what the president and the white house said for the past four years, if you like your plan you keep your plan. if you like your doctor, you keep your doctor. this is different.
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>> well, if you do like your doctor, you keep your doctor, and if he chooses to keep the insurance, and if you dump your insurance before obamacare, it happened all the time. how many people have lost their insurance plan because they decided they're not going to provide employer-based insurance. the bottom line, i think what he's trying to say, if the employer chooses to go down this road you can go to an exchange and get health care, and which was unavailable to the vast majority of people who have the health care beforehand. then you're chuckling and-- >> yeah, because the key word here is 7 million more people are going to lose it because of obamacare, and then the president came out and told a fairy tale nothing will change for you. don't worry you can keep your doctor, there have been changes for a lot of americans who are on private insurance as their employers started to
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get ready for the qualifications and thinks about obamacare and have gone to high deductible plans, and i'm at 4 grand a year now and used to be at $250 and why? because of obamacare. and so there's a lot of americans now sitting there going hold on a second. i was told that i would be left alone. that if i had a plan i liked, you weren't going to bother me, but when you write a law that purposely makes it easier for my employer to say, you know what i'll say the fine, you can get government health care it's cheaper for me, exactly how they wrote the law, 7 million people are going to get the hey, get the government policy it's cheaper on us and it's sad the president did that to people. >> there are so many things that you said that aren't accurate i don't know where to begin. but this has been-- >> name one. >> let me start my list, first and foremost again, you're premiums would go up before obamacare, are you telling me your premiums never went up--
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>> that's not true. >>en premiums were stable before obamacare and you're telling me that-- >> hold on, i hear what you're saying, basically some of this is unpredictable and we didn't know what the employers were going to do in the future and that's part of the president's rational costs are going up. however, julie, why did the administration say things in such an unequivocal way. kathleen sebelius, the president over and over said nothing will change. obamacare, if you like your plan and your doctor, this will change nothing. >> well, i think their point again is that the government was not going to take away your health care, if your employer wants to take aware your health care and take it up with the employer, i feel your pain and i know, i ran a small business. >> obamacare-- >> i run a small business and i know how much it costs to insurance myself and my staff it's a tremendous amount, but i'll say this is in fact make-- create a tremendous break for
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people like me and allow me to go in the market and compete with other exchanges and make sure that we get better access to health care. >> and julie-- >> and go ahead, keep going. >> last point. >> yeah, you don't employ 50 people. most small business owners don't. this is for companies that employ more than 50 people who have looked at this and realize if the bill was written to make it easier for them to dump americans and that's exactly what this government insurance was some kind to do and what the president said it wouldn't do. well, 7 million people losing their coverage, you cannot always blame the private sector for this one, when the government wrote the law so this would in fact happen and they're doing what barack obama wanted to happen which was control people peace health care and guess what? 7 million people are on my side on this one 'cause they're losing what they were told they weren't going to lose. >> ben ferguson, julie, great debate. and obviously the devil is in the details and we'll see what happens in 2014.
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thank you. >> the white house is again defending its drone policy. we've been talking a lot about it. after a new report, gives the administration legal coverage to target americans suspected of al-qaeda and terror groups. up next we'll talk with attorney general and judge alberto gonzalez who had a lot to say about the memo and the treatment he got when he tried the terror tactics in the white house. [ elevator bell dings ]
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the gopher state! so in conclusion, things are pretty dismal... you know what this room needs? a smile. who want to come with i? [ jimmy cliff's "c'mon, get happy" plays ] ♪ you guys are three minutes late. [ caribbean accent ] don't be no cloud on a sunny day! [ caribbean accent ] yea chill, winston. sir? respect boss man! [ laughter ] [ male announcer ] that's the power of german engineering.
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>> we have acknowledged in the united states that sometimes we use remotely piloted aircraft to conduct target strikes against specific al-qaeda terrorists in order to prevent attacks on the united states and to save american lives. we conduct those strikes because they are necessary to mitigate ongoing actual
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threats and to block future attacks and save american lives. these strikes are legal, they are ethical a. >> alisyn: that was jay carney defending the obama administration's drone policy. and that to target even americans overseas. killing americans even if they are suspected of being leaders of al-qaeda or associated terror group. former u.s. attorney general alberto gonzalez, a counselor and belmont university, joining me now. hello. >> good afternoon. >> alisyn: before i get to your impression of the drone program, and i do want to hear those, can you take us back to the years 2005, 2007 when you're attorney general in the white house, and what had a day in your life was like as you were underfire for the
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anti-terror tactics that the bush administration used? >> well, it's part of the attorney general, part of the job of the attorney general is to take on these difficult tasks and president bush took extraordinary measures to protect america, that we believed were lawful. anytime you're doing something controversial, obviously some people are unhappy about it, part of my job as attorney general was to go up on the hill, to give interviews, to talk to various groups and explain why what we're doing is not only effective, but constitutional under the law. and it's part of the job and quite frankly i think there's a double standard applied by the media between the administration and that's just the way it is. and it's not fair, but i think we all understand and it's all pretty obvious with respect to the level of scrutiny that some members of the media and interest groups placed on the action of the administration based upon who the president is. >> of course the irony is that
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the tactics that the bush administration used, wire tapping or water boarding and certainly a case can be made against those and legal experts debated those ad nauseam during the bush administration, but the killing of suspects before a trial seems much more drastic and that's what the drones program does, so, how do you explain this double standard the fact that there doesn't seem to be the outrage about this. >> part of it may stem from the the fact that we don't have all the information. i suspect the department of justice has a much more lengthy legal opinion that's classified and what happened is after interest by congress about the program, the department took the classified opinion, sanitized it and what was disclosed yesterday reflects that document. there may be additional information or facts that we don't know about the program which may of course explain
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why the level of scrutiny isn't as high as we saw back with respect to some of the tax particula tactics used by the bush administration. >> alisyn: you're being very kind, mr. gonzalez, a nice lens by which to look at the double standard and maybe we don't have enough information, but press secretary jay carney came out and gave the administration's rational and as much as they talk about it for why they used the drone program and basically said, look, even though civilians were killed, yes, that's an unfortunate byproduct i'm paraphrasing, but much less than a ground invasion or war. what do you think about the use of the drone program? >> i think, listen, once someone is designated as an enemy combatant they're a legitimate target and they can be taken out anytime, on the
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battlefield, but whether the president can designate an american citizen as an enemy combatant that was raised in the supreme court. where the court seemed to say a president on his own could not designate an american citizen as an enemy combatant for detention. if that's the fact it does raise the question whether or not the president on his own has the authority to designate an american citizen as an enemy combatant for the purposes of a kill. once an american citizen is designated an enemy combatant i think the president as commander-in-chief should have the authority to execute on that with you the first question raises some interesting questions. i don't know today if this matter went to the supreme court, i don't know today if there are five votes to support the authority of the president to do that on his own without any kind of opportunity for the american citizen to present his case, without any kind of oversight or review by a neutral
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decision maker. so i think there are serious questions here and i believe the cia director, director designate, john brennan, is going to face pretty tough questioning on thursday. >> alisyn: it sounds like it, sounds like this will come up at that confirmation hearing. alberto gonzalez, former attorney general for the bush administration, thank you for joining us and for your thoughts. >> good to be with you. >> alisyn: we have details on the major winter storm that could affect more than 30 million people. plus, our newest internet sensation, he's hitchhiking, hatchet wielding surfer dude being called a real life hero. >> driving down this way i come to realize i can do anything (bleep) want to and watch this, bam, and he smashed into the (bleep) right there. between that shrub.
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>> the story you've been waiting for all day. a hitchhiker is a hero after police say the guy who gave him a ride plowed his car into a man on purpose and then attacked a woman who tried to help the victim when the hitchhiker put his hatchet to use and now an internet sensation. fox's trace gallagher in the west coast bureau with more. >> reporter: the hitchhiker jumpeded between fresno. and when they got a fresno the man he was riding with lost it it. >> driving down this lane i come to realize i'm jesus christ and i can do anything i (bleep) want to. and watch this. bam! he smashed into this guy there and (bleep) that shrub.
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>> reporter: so ky and two other women went to help the injured pacific gas and electric worker when they found out the suspect was not only violent, but he was racist. listen. >> and he just kept saying he was jesus christ and he's going to save all of us and that we have to get-- he used the n-word meaning for black people and that and get them off the earth. >> yes, well, then the suspect went after the women who tried to help. and ky, the hitchhiking surfer would have none of it. >> he put me in a bear hug and beating the crap out of me, for what reason i don't know. >> the two people, he grabs one of them. a man that big could snap the woman's neck like a pencil stick and grabbed the hatchet, smash, smash, smash. >> and the suspect 6-4, 290
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pounds. and that's why ky, the hitchhiking surf says he could break someone's neck like a pencil. that man is now in the fresno jail and he could be there for a while. but the pacific gas and electric worker by the way was injured, but he will survive. ali. >> alisyn: dude, that's like a totally narly story. do you have any reason why the surfer dude had a hatchet on him. >> reporter: no, a good question. he says he carries it because he chops wood and he's a homeless surfer, around the country from west virginia or from virginia, west virginia and been travelling across the country and uses that to chop up wood and keep him warm at night. >> alisyn: okay, that makes sense. and defend himself defense racist homicidal freaks. thanks so much, trace. >> reporter: you bet. >> alisyn: we'll be right back in two minutes.
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>> thanks so much for watching today. i'll see you again t

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